Another Life
by Woofalicious
Summary: Legolas and Gimli live together (as friends, they are not gay in this story) in a London flat. They live the average bachelor life, work during the weeks and girls on the weekend. That all changes when they stumble upon the rare book series, The Lord of the Rings. What if they didn't live the life the thought they did? What if this book changed things forever? Pairings: Legolas/OC
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first ever fanfic... Don't kill me for my poor grammar skills, please? Anyways, I hope you like it despite the whole AU thing... Please review!

Disclaimer: J.R.R. Tolkien owns LOTR, not I.

Chapter 1:

"Legolas."

Groan.

"Lego man."

Silence.

"Legmister."

Nothing.

"L-"

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?" This was a half-naked, bedraggled Legolas yelling at his wide awake, bright eyed flat mate. Said flat mate was currently sporting a cheeky grin.

"Good morning!"

Gimli got the finger for that. Legolas determinedly shut his eyes once more and shoved his head under the pillows. God, didn't that thing know anything about beauty sleep? Fucking redheads. It was right about then when ice cold water suddenly decided to give him a bath.

"I. Will. Fucking. Kill. You." He gave the short man a glare that translated nothing, but 'I'm going to kill you'. Grumbling the whole time, the drenched blonde crawled out of his soaking bed then looked at the clock and groaned, it was seven in the morning.

"Hey, arse hole over there, what day is it?" That was obviously Legolas speaking to Gimli.

"Saturday!" Came the bright reply. Legolas scowled.

"You woke me up... At seven... On a Saturday.." It wasn't a question.

"Yep."

"I am going to fucking kill you."

"No you're not."

"Yes. I. Am."

"Nope!"

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"N- " Gimli then had to break off due to a soggy pillow hitting him right in the face. Legolas smirked as his friend spluttered out random words.

"Gah... Pillow... Wet... Crime..."

"A fucking wet pillow for the little fucker," Legolas sing-songed. With that he gracefully rolled out of bed. His plaid pajama pants were sagging a bit when he stood up. His long, pale torso was lean and his light blonde hair fell, completely straight, past his shoulders despite having just woken up. Gimli called him pretty boy for it. The little man couldn't exactly be talking considering he was half his hight, had scraggly auburnish red hair, and the beginnings of a beard. Legolas, or so he liked to think, was much more appealing to the ladies.

When he rummaged through his doors for a clean shirt he could hear Gimli muttering and grumbling in the kitchen. Gimli hated water, served him right. Legolas thought that he could deal with it. He knew the little man could.

He finally managed to pull out a faded gray plaid shirt and a slightly ripped pair of jeans. He smiled at himself in the reflection of his mirror.

"Hey there, sexy, what's your name? Oh, Legolas, you say? That's a sexy name for a sexy person." He then proceeded to do what he believed was called the 'duck face' then broke out laughing at the results. Ah, women and their idiocy. He wondered why they did that, it wasn't appealing, much less attractive.

He strode out of his relatively clean room and down the hall of his, er, their flat. He found Gimli bending over a plate of omelets, bacon, hash brown, pancakes, fruit, and even, oh God, pizza. How he stayed his normal, muscle added weight, the world may never know.

"Do you ever eat enough?" He asked in disgust as he looked at the food.

"Nof," Gimli replied with a full mouth. Crumbs sprayed all over the table.

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you through all that food," he responded while trying not to gag. His short friend chewed some more before swallowing and repeating his answer.

"No."

"Damn, Gims, one day I will be able to officially call you overweight."

"Nope, never!"

"Whatever, Future Fatty," yes, that was perfectly nice and acceptable. Well, between flat mates, that is. He rolled his blue eyes at Gimli and headed towards the cabinets. He searched through the cereal boxes until he found the brand he was looking for and pulled it out.

"Gah, you and your healthy shite," Gimli mumbled around a full mouth of food. He shot a sharp glare to the Special K Legolas had taken.

"If you ate healthier you would be... Smarter!" Yeah, he didn't really have anything to say that sounded cool. Gimli rose a brow at the words. Legolas chose to ignore him, his ego bruised...by himself. God, that was embarrassing. He walked over to the fridge and jerked open the door, grabbed the carton of milk, then slammed the door shut again.

"Could you have shut that door any louder?" Gimli asked sarcastically.

"Yep." Legolas's smirk was back and his ego restored a bit. It still was wounded, mind you, but it was a scratch, nothing like stepping on a Lego or anything. Legolas smiled at the thought of Legos, he quite liked them. As a child (and possibly teenager and adult) he had alway loved playing with them.

"I'm heading out today, coming with me?" Gimli asked. The food was low, in his standards. They needed more, he was surprised they even had the money for food, much less a nice flat like this. Then again, Legolas did earn a surprising amount by teaching people how to use the Internet. Rich dudes from small, foreign countries always needed to know something and payed well for it. He felt almost ashamed at his part time job at the Super Market.

"Nope," that was the expected answer, of course. Legolas would probably be sleeping when he came back again, anyways. Gimli rolled his eyes at Legolas when he placed his now empty plate in the sink. They had a rule, Legolas did the dishes every other day and he every other day in between. It was the Beauty Queen's turn today. Good.

Legolas placed his bowl on top of Gimli's dish and left them there. He preferred to do all the dishes at the end of the day. It was a good plan, really, except on the days they had company, there were just too many dishes then. The door shut quietly as Gimli existed the flat. Well, there was an hour or two of alone time to spare.

Legolas grabbed an apple from the table bowl and headed into the living room. He turned the news on without really even listening. In fact, it was just a hubbub of background noise as he munched on his apple. His light gray eyes spotted his Mac on the coffee table after looking around a bit.

Their flat was actually pretty clean, there wasn't rubbish all over the floor, or clothes, just well, your average items that ended up on the floor. You couldn't exactly call them neat freaks, but they were still far from slobs. Legolas was probably the only reason the flat was clean, however. Gimli's room... It wasn't dirty, per se, just unorganized, very unorganized. He had clothes lying everywhere as long as blankets, shoes, movies, and...beanie babies.

Legolas shuddered at the thought of the stuffed devils, it was a weird liking his friend had. Honestly, what 22 year old man keeps beanie babies? At least there were some pretty cool action figures there. Gimli's green walls were plastered with posters of actors, singers, movies, TV series, etc. it was kind of cool, yet creepy. Like previously said, sort of.

Legolas mentally compared his own room to Gimli's. It was neat and organized, not a thing that wasn't supposed to touched the floors. His walls were a nice grayish blue like his eyes and had a few posters of his favorite people. Honestly, that wasn't much. He had a certain disregard for the modern celebrities, he preferred the works of the old, except in music.

The blonde shook is head in wonder in how they were friends as he grabbed and logged into his Mac. He paused, his fingers hovering over the touchpad. He had no idea what he wanted to do. He pondered the situation for a moment before settling on YouTube. YouTube was good. Now, what to watch? Again, his mind drew a blank at this seemingly impossible task.

"Well, fuck," he muttered under his breath. He took a bite out of his apple as if that would help him think. There was this American channel he liked, Kingsley, but he had already watched his newest video. That gave him an idea nonetheless.

Legolas opened up the video on his laptop. He could make his own channel! Well, this was bette- oh, hell no. He was never going to do this. Legolas exited out of the video app in frustration. He would just settle for paint then.

It was like that how Gimli walked in and found him two hours later. He deposited his load on the counter and walked into the living room and found Legolas sitting down with his laptop and eyes glued to the screen. The redhead walked up behind him to see what he was doing.

"Have you no decency?" Gimli chuckled. Blondie was currently drawing some rather...passionate stick figures of the opposite gender engaging in, yeah, you get it. In case you don't, they were in the middle of a hot and steamy shag.

"Yes, I could have posted the others online, but I didn't." Legolas smirked and deleted the canvas. He turned around to face Gimli. "So.. Buy anything good?"

"If you mean your healthy shite, then yes." Gimli gestured with a hand towards the kitchen where the bags were. Legolas shut the computer then ran off with surprising agility to the kitchen. He ruffled through the bags, looking for veggies and such. He was surprised when he pulled out a chicken.

"Tonight... We shall feast!" Legolas proclaimed. Gimli cheered, the blonde was a good cook. His mouth was watering at the thought. "How does Greek chicken sound?" Legolas asked him.

"Delicious," came the hasty reply.

"Good, I'll make a spinach salad to go with, then." The salad consisted of fresh spinach, kalamata olives, feta cheese, grape tomatoes, and pepperchinies. At least his did. Gimli's stomach growled in response.

Of course it was only nine in the morning, so that was a ways away. Gimli seemed to realize this to for his excited face fell a bit. Oh, well. Legolas then noticed a bulge in his friend's coat pocket.

"What's that?" He asked, gesturing to Gimli's coat. Gimli felt the bulge with his hand then reached inside and pulled out an old, battered book.

"This? I found it outside the lobby door on my way in. I almost didn't see it, here," with the last word Gimli handed it over to Legolas to study. It was old, the cover was faded and the spine torn. He could make out the faint letters of the title.

"The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring," he read aloud. He looked on the back, but couldn't make anything out. The hard cover was too stained and ripped to make anything out. The book itself was short and thick. It was an odd book. Legolas, for once, was intrigued.

He brought it over to his Mac and set it down on the counter. He logged on once more and opened Chrome. In the search engine he typed in 'The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the ring'. The first page was full of sites for rings and jewelry clubs, as was the second, and third, fourth, then on the fifth he finally found something. 'Lord of the Rings trilogy'. Legolas looked at Gimli who had followed him. He nodded eagerly, urging him on to click it. So he did.

"The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien is a very rare and unusual series. Not many have heard of it and even fewer have read it. It is a tale about the Ring of Power and it's bearer Frodo Baggins. In the first book he has to start his journey to destroy the ring with his eight companions. He is joined by the three hobbits he started with, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin 'Pippin' Took and Meriadoc 'Merry' Brandybuck. The other five companions are Gandalf the Gray, Aragorn and Boromir, the humans, Legolas... the elf, and Gimli... the dwarf."

Legolas stopped reading and turned to look at Gimli. The same wonder was reflected in both of their eyes. How were their names...? That book...whatever it was just got a lot more interesting.

"Coincidence, right?" Gimli gave a shaky laugh. It was truthfully kind of creepy. Legolas seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"You're right, it must be," it made sense... They had old, unusual names, this was an old and unusual book. He gave a short laugh himself and continued reading. It explained the books some more before it got to the end.

"The most unusual thing about this book is how life like it seems. It's as if you're actually living it. It's different than other books, even more alive. Readers swear that they feel like they are actually living it, the few who did read it, anyways. I, myself, have never read the books. They were not meant for me, all this information was gathered from readers, I just recorded it. Those meant to read the book are those who found it. Good luck."

They both looked at the book as if it would suddenly start talking to them. So this boon was rare and old. The person who wrote that blog unnerved him. He had made it seem the book was alive, that whoever found it was meant to read it. They looked at each other once again, an unspoken decision went between them, they had to read this book.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry for the wait, I don't really have any access to the internet beside a few stolen moments. I'm not sure when I'll next be able to update, so please, be patient.. For me? In the meantime, here's chapter 2.

P.S. Please R&R

Chapter 2:

Legolas stared up at the ceiling in his room. The clock read 6:00 A.M. which was surprising to see. Legolas was never up by six unless having stayed up until then. Truth was that he had trouble sleeping that night. You could tell by the way his hair was a rats nest and his sheets everywhere that he'd been tossing and turning all night.

He tried closing his eyes, but alas, it would not be so. God, since when did he think or say alas? Fuck was a much more in character word for him. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Yep, defiantly better. He smirked at the celling, what the hell was wrong with him? Let's just go with bad sleeping for the sake of it.

Legolas rolled out of bed half naked once more and didn't even bother changing before heading out the door. It was in the least to say Gimli was surprised when Legolas walked in the kitchen more or less awake. He raised a brow and got the finger in return. The redhead grinned as Legolas turned away, either way he still had the 'morning rage'. Legolas surprised him even further when he poured himself a bowl of Lucky Charms.

"Sugar? Are you serious?" Gimli said in shock.

"Fuck. You." That was civil enough for him. Legolas was as tired as fuck and needed something to keep him awake. Before he put some milk on his cereal he got up and made a cup of coffee from that coffee thing they had. It was the one that made single cups, you know? It was black, energizing, warm, and fucking delicious.

After taking a well deserved sip, Legolas sat down, poured milk onto his cereal, then proceeded to shovel it into his mouth much like Gimli did with any type of food placed in front of him, how attractive.

Now you may or may not be wondering why Legolas (and Gimli) didn't sleep well. The answer is the book. It wasn't the 'meant to read it' part as much as the 'rare and hardly read' part. Who would throw out such a valuable book? Why was it rare? How rare was it? How much was it worth? It was questions like these that had kept them mentally active for a lot of the night.

There was also the little fact that both of their names happened to be in the book. That was most likely just coincidence as they had agreed last night, but it was still cool if not just a bit weird. It made him feel old-fashioned considering this book was written quite a while ago. Gimli had thought much the same thing. With that on his mind, he made another cup of coffee and headed into the living room.

The book was on the table where they had left it last night. The ripped, faded cover called out almost immediately. Legolas sat on the couch and looked at it when Gimli joined him a minute later. They looked at in silence, both thinking the same thing. They most defiantly had to read it.

Legolas was very picky about books and would not hesitate to chuck them out a window if they're poorly written or if he just didn't like them. Yet, he had a feeling this was to be a good book.

"Let's take turns reading chapters?" Legolas asked, pushing the 'morning rage' down for this.

"Sure," Gimli shrugged, it was a good idea, they could both read it this way, and read it together.

"I'll start," Legolas said. Gimli didn't even bother objecting, it would be useless. Legolas picked up the book then flipped to what seemed like the beginning of the book. His eyes quickly skimmed through the page, it was all information. He flipped through a few more pages, it still went on.

"It's all information in the beginning," Legolas stated carefully.

"Might be useful," Gimli replied.

"Okay then," Legolas sighed, he hated informational parts of books. Well, there went part of interest. He was about to start reading when saw text through the back of the page before the first. He flipped back a page to read it. His interest had been recaptured.

"Three Rings for the Elven-Kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

Legolas and Gimli looked at each other before the blonde flipped the page and continued reading. Apparently he had flipped more than one page back. His eyes scanned the page, it was more like information about the author, he skipped that and went straight for the Prologue.

The prologue explained in very great detail about the hobbits. There wasn't a single detail missed. They were intrigued by the mention of dwarfs, elves, and the ring. It was all rather confusing yet descriptive. There were so many names to remember that they soon all got jumbled up their heads. They were also both surprised to find out about 'The Hobbit'.

Needless to say they felt like they knew everything about hobbits once the prologue had finished. It was a tad long if not a bit wearisome. Still, it put the book off to an alright start. It answered their silent question about what hobbits were. Legolas flipped the page and the words 'Chapter 1' loomed out at him.

"Here," he said, handing the book to Gimli, "It's your turn."

"Thanks." Gimli's slightly gruffer voice replaced Legolas's as he took his turn. The story had officially begun. The first part was honestly dull. It dragged over details and there were many names to keep track of, but it was filling. They learned more of Bilbo and Frodo from Gaffer, damn that guy was rich, Bilbo, in case you were wondering.

Bilbo, now that was one old little hobbit. Fuck hobbits, that was an impressive age for a human. He even smoked! They would have to learn a couple things from him.

The tradition of giving out gifts was an odd one, what about receiving them? It was just weird. Legolas thought of having to provide for that many guest. No, just no. He hoped that the elves mentioned in the blog were better, apparently Legolas in the book was one. He didn't hold much hope for the dwarfs, poor Gimli.

They were both surprised at Bilbo's leaving, and the behavior concerning the ring. Gandalf seemed to be pretty 'badass' in that moment. It was an odd ring. A magic one too, obviously. Legolas looked at the silver band he wore on his right pinkie. He couldn't even begin to imagine getting that possessive over it.

"Poor Frodo," Gimli commented softly. Legolas nodded, the hobbit now had to live without his father figure. He thought about how happy he was when he finally got to move out, well, not everything's always the same. At least he had Gandalf, that wizard seemed pretty cool.

Legolas probably could have nodded off when Gimli read about the gift giving, it was action less if not a tad humorous. It was the end of the chapter that got them interested again. That ring, it was one piece of work. On that note the chapter ended and they were left with traveling minds.

"The ring, it's the one isn't it, the one in the blog?" Gimli asked.

"Most likely."

"I wonder what Gandalf was thinking about."

"We'll find out soon enough."

"Do you think Frodo will get possessive like Bilbo?"

"No idea."

"I wonder what else the ring can do."

"Mhmm."

"Do you think Legolas is a weird elf?"

"Gimli?"

"Yes?"

"Shut the fuck up and let me sleep."

The coffee lay on the table, long forgotten by the sleeping blonde. If he wore a watch it would have read 5:00 P.M. Gimli was eating some cold pizza and watching TV. Legolas woke to the sounds of guns going off all around him.

"Call the cops!" He shouted in his sleepy state.

"Yeah, we have a TVerrorist running around," Gimli laughed.

"You know what? Go fuck yourself in your mum's room, during daytime." As you may have guessed by now, Legolas wasn't the nicest person around when he got up. Still, he could at least turn the volume down. God.

He heard something about how this wasn't over coming from the TV before it went to commercial. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes then yawned. He looked at the clock on the TV with wide eyes. It was five o' clock. P.M. too. Well, damn.

"I need a beer and a beautiful woman tonight," Legolas said after a large yawn. Then he saw the book. "You know, we could always read another chapter before the night begins..."

"No. We need to eat and freshen up before getting ready. With you that process just so happens to take a long time," Gimli sighed.

"Does not!" Legolas voice had raised to the obnoxious tone of a whiny kid. Gimli sighed and headed towards the kitchen. While reading another chapter sounded nice, he really wanted to go out tonight. It would be good, they didn't have all the chance during weekdays. Well, he didn't, but no work on Monday for him.

Their minds formed in very high detail fantasies about what would happen that night. Legolas took some left over Greek chicken while imaging the breast of a completely different animal. He smirked as he slid the chicken in the microwave. With luck he wasn't even going to remember this night.

"Want to head to the Golden Ring tonight?" Legolas asked. Gimli smirked for two things. One, the book, and two, all the easy pickings were known to be there. He didn't even say anything, he didn't have to. They were going there. Legolas would be swamped within minutes, that long mop of his seemed to be hot and majestic. He? He looked like a bloody Irishman with his brown red beginnings of a beard. Really, though, many found it manly and sexy. What.

About half an hour later they were both done eating. Legolas muttered something about taking a shower and headed off towards the bathroom. Gimli took a quick note of the time, 5:37. He himself went back into the living room and grabbed his own Mac, a Christmas present from Legolas, and sat down.

Now, he didn't know much about computers and laptops (that was more Legolas), but he did know that this was a very good, not to mention expensive, piece of equipment. He treated it with the utmost care. He really did appreciate it and the thought that was in it. While he may not be as technology crazy as his friend he did recognize something nice when he saw it.

It was exactly forty-five minutes later when a dripping wet Legolas came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist. He winced at Gimli's amused expression. He had probably taken ages and now he was going to get this beauty queen shite about it.

" Was forty-five minutes enough for the prince...ss?" Gimli asked innocently. "Did you remember to shampoo, rinse, condition, rinse, repeat? And what about washing behind your ears, a true beauty never forgets that."

"It sounds like you think I'm a beautiful creature who needs to be at my utmost perfection," Legolas retorted. If he could find any way to get back at him, he would.

"Drats! You got me, your body, it just draws me in," Gimli said sarcastically. Sexual feeling for Legolas? None. Sexual feelings for women? Now we're talking. Gimli returned his attention back to YouTube, there was still another three hours left before Legolas would be ready to go.

"Screw this," he muttered and pushed the laptop away. He walked over to the TV stand and pulled out Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. That would keep him good for a while.

While the movie was loading Gimli put some cologne on and grabbed a clean shirt. He tore off the previous shirt and let it fall in the laundry basket. He had cleaned his room earlier so the floor was for the most part, spotless and all the er, beanie babies were stashed away. Perfect to have a nice lady come over.

He put the black v-neck over his head as he walked back towards the kitchen. The movie was waiting to be started when he came back. Perfect. Gimli pressed play and awaited the awesome epicness that would soon greet him. Legolas would have been just as addicted if he didn't have other things to worry about.

The amazing movie had just ended when Legolas came out of his room. He looked like those guys who walked in a bar just to have the girls hanging off of him. Gimli smirked, it took him three hours to get this way.

"Ready to go?" Gimli asked innocently as if it had been fifteen minutes and not one eighty. Legolas flipped him off and grabbed his car keys and jacket.

"Have fun finding your own ride," Legolas called while walking out the door. Gimli cursed his name then leapt over the back of the couch then ran to the door. He slipped on his shoes and grabbed his coat and rushed out the door. He took a second to shut it. Legolas was waiting a few meters down the hall with a smirk on his face.

"You tosser," Gimli hissed at him. Legolas just laughed. The short man glared then determinedly headed towards the lobby. "If we weren't getting shagged tonight..." The threat was empty and the both knew it.

"I bet I can get a bird first," Legolas said, a hint of challenge on his voice. Gimli raised a brow at this.

"Doubtful."

"Who are you to talk? Even Bilbo could get a girl faster than you."

"But he's one hundred and eleven!"

"Exactly."


End file.
